Eins Town (1)
Our next destination was Eins Town.
It was close to the capital and well known for its Cocotte poultry farming.
Recently, we’d been asking them to breed more, but I hadn’t heard any reports of success yet.
I needed to check on the situation myself—something must not be working.
This town was home to several award-winning cooks: first place in the restaurant category for their Fried Cocotte and Grilled Potatoes, second place for Cheese-Baked Cocotte (Cocotte meat sandwiched with cheese, coated in breadcrumbs, and baked), plus award-winning vendors who placed sixth and eighth in the street stall division with their Cheese and Walnut Bread.
It seemed I could collect a lot of dishes all at once here.
Originally, I’d planned to visit Eins last, but since we were stopping by the new town on our way back, I changed the schedule.
Hopefully, the dishes would already be prepared.
The family-run restaurant that took second place should be open around two o’clock, so we decided to visit them first.
However, when we arrived, there was already a long line outside, so we passed by for now.
“Brother Chris, what do you make of this?”
“Most likely, the exhibition’s reputation has drawn people in.”
“But it’s been more than a month since the exhibition.”
“At this rate, they might not have time to prepare our dish.”
“I agree. Let’s check out the other restaurant that placed in the street stall division first,” I suggested.
Both of them were in the same situation—lines stretching out the doors.
“Let’s go hear what the Merchants’ Guild has to say,” Brother Chris said.
“Yes, that sounds best.”
When we spoke with the branch manager at the Merchants’ Guild, he told us that the restaurants had been crowded nonstop since the exhibition results were announced.
“But that means people can’t even eat the award-winning dishes anymore, right?” I asked.
“That’s true. But some people are complaining about it, which is causing trouble for the restaurant staff.”
“And the neighboring shops—no complaints from them?” Brother Chris asked.
“Actually, they’re having trouble too. At first, they thought it would only last for a short while, so they tolerated it, but after more than a month… well, patience is wearing thin.”
That was a problem.
“Have you heard of this happening in other towns?” I asked.
“It seems to be the same in places with permanent restaurants.”
So it was the same in towns like the capital and Eminira.
“Are the people lining up locals?” Brother Chris asked.
“No, they’re merchants from elsewhere, or locals hired by those merchants.”
Regular customers likely couldn’t even get in with lines like that.
“They can’t do takeout, can they?” I asked.
“Actually, that’s been an issue. Some people say they want to take food home for their families or come up with other excuses to order multiple servings.”
Even when they refused, the complaints only increased and wasted more time, so the Guild decided to allow takeout for up to three portions per person.
They even made it a rule across all award-winning restaurants so that the staff could use the Guild’s decision as an official reason to limit orders.
“So the ones who can’t get enough food just keep coming back every day,” Brother Chris said.
Ah, so that’s what was happening. His words made it click.
With things like this, I could see why many people were still complaining about not being able to eat the award-winning dishes.
But if those dishes weren’t even available, why line up at all?
Apparently, since the award-winning recipes weren’t authorized by the lord for sale, merchants were lining up anyway so they could tell their clients, “We couldn’t get the special dish, but we brought back food from that same restaurant.”
They could have just given up and gone home, honestly.
The Guild told us that all three restaurants closed in the evenings now and could be spoken to around dusk.
When I asked about the restaurant owner who won first place in the dining category but wasn’t currently operating a restaurant, I was told he’d been swamped with visitors asking him to secretly make the award-winning dishes or create new recipes to sell. Some even offered large sums of money.
He’d refused them all so far, but it was wearing him down.
The Guild agreed to ask the three active restaurant owners to come by in the evening, so until then, we decided to rest at the inn.
“Things have really gotten out of hand. I’m terribly sorry,” Brother Chris said when the three restaurant owners arrived later.
They panicked and waved their hands. “It’s not the lord’s fault!”
“But if this keeps up, relations with your neighbors will only get worse.”
The three exchanged glances, and one of them finally spoke.
“Actually, we wanted to ask a favor. The three of us have been thinking about relocating—with our families—to the new town, if that would be allowed.”
Originally, they’d planned to send their children to start branches there, but the atmosphere in town had soured. Other shopkeepers kept making comments like, “Must be nice being the rich ones,” and relationships had deteriorated.
On top of that, since they couldn’t serve any new dishes here and had to keep turning people away, they were eager to move as soon as possible.
“But moving means you’ll lose your income for a while.”
The owners replied that they could manage for a time by selling their shops. That wasn’t good. There was no guarantee that travelers would start visiting the new town right away.
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” said one of the Guild staff confidently.
When we asked why, he explained that people who had visited the new town’s hot springs had been bragging about it everywhere.
Rumors were spreading that the lord was developing delicious new dishes that would be affordable even for common folk.
And since people who went to the preliminaries and exhibitions had realized travel was safe, many residents were now saving up money, saying they wanted to visit the new town for fun.
“Wait—yes, we are developing new dishes, but how do they even know that?”
“We’ve heard it from people of other territories who said they ate there and found it delicious.”
Apparently, merchants from other domains had picked up stories from travelers who’d dined in inns or restaurants that had tasted the food.
Could it be from Raphael or Dianne’s place? Or perhaps the Northtrad family’s?
I told them we’d consult with the lord and asked them to wait a little longer for a decision.
When I also told them that they didn’t need to prepare any dishes for us this time, they all looked visibly relieved.
Given how busy they’d been, gathering ingredients must have been hard enough already—and they were surely exhausted.
I’d have to send a letter to Father and ask Damian and the others in the capital to check on how the other award-winners were doing.
What do you think about this chapter?
